APBA and the DH: A question about the 23 leads to so many more

I received an email from Alan Hobbs who has started playing APBA Baseball after a decades-long hiatus. 

Alan includes a question in his email which I thought was worthy of attention. 

Alan writes:

A brief background: I played APBA throughout my teen years. While cleaning out my mother’s garage (I am now 59) I found an envelope with the 1977 Dodgers and now, with my children in little league, I have re-immersed myself in APBA, and just bought a game on Ebay to play with my children.

I was looking at the old cards and recalled a peculiarity: The number 23. 

23 was that weird number, along with 41, that had some crazy situations.  It was the number where there were injuries, ejections, triple plays (along with 41) and games called because of rain.

The thing is, when perusing the cards I found, I noticed that 23 was only on pitchers’ batting cards. 

I always played the National League, so the DH never came into play.  But now that the DH is in both leagues, how did APBA modify, or did they modify, the number 23 and its possible scenarios into the game? 

Is this number obsolete? Forgive my ignorance, but it’s been over 40 years and I am rusty on how the game has progressed.

Any wisdom you can impart would be greatly appreciated.

First, I appreciate Alan asking.  It got me thinking.  It raised more questions than answers.  Before I get started, one point of clarification: the 23 does currently appear on full-time shortstops as well as pitchers.

Some background

A little background so we’re all on the same page. 

In 2020, the Designated hitter rule was used in both leagues. As a result, very few pitchers (ahem, Shohei Ohtani) came to the plate that year.  In the corresponding 2020 APBA set, every pitcher had virtually similar hitting cards.

Meanwhile in MLB in 2021, the DH rule went away in the NL and pitchers were back to hitting again.  APBA issued pitchers’ hitting cards based on their hitting performance. 

Finally, MLB has ruled that started in 2022 (this season) the DH would be used in both leagues.  Aside from multi-talented players, pitchers will not appear at the plate. 

What does this mean for the 2022 set?

Again, this raises some questions.  Alan’s concern about whether the frequency of the 23 is one of them.  Here are a few more. 

Will APBA start using a “DH” position?

Aside from this Shohei Ohtani rookie card, the APBA card makers have never issued a card with a “DH” or “Designated Hitter” position to my knowledge (correct me if I’m wrong, readers).  Not David Ortiz nor Edgar Martinez. Even a recent example, Twins’ Nelson Cruz has been rated OF despite not playing in the field.

With the new MLB rule, how will APBA adapt?  Will there be changes in the game? Are APBA fans ready?

Since there is a precedent with the 2019 Ohtani card, that would make it easy to transition to a permanent change. Baseball fans and APBA fans in particular (myself included) are traditionalists and might balk at this (no pun intended).

Will there be a standard pitching hitting card?

This is an off-the-wall idea that might work.

Will the APBA Game Company issue a standard pitching hitting card for use for all pitchers?  This would be for leagues who don’t use the designated hitter and perhaps dogmatic replayers who don’t want let to go of the past (I kid. I don’t like the DH rule either).

I honestly would like this idea.  It would save the Company (and hopefully the customers!) printing costs. I just got to thinking to last year’s IAL season when every ninth batter essentially had the same hitting card for both teams. Why not have a standard pitching hitting card unless you were smart enough to draft Ohtani?

For what it’s worth, the Illowa APBA League has voted to move to the DH rule next year.  I don’t like it but I feel it’s important to keep up with MLB’s rules and regulations. 

And yeah, what about the 23?

This all gets back to Alan’s original question.  The 23 occurs on the pitchers’ card and full-time shortstops’ card.  That 23 result number gives some of the off-the-wall including ejections, injuries and the infamous rainout which occurs with runners on first and third.

With MLB going to the DH, now what?

I guess it depends on what APBA decides to do with the upcoming set.  If there is a “DH” position, let’s put the 23 on that card. For what it’s worth, Shohei’s rookie card which has the “Designated Hitter” position on his card, has a 36 which pitchers tend to receive. He did not get the 23.

It’s not always that simple though.  Most designated hitters do play other positions some more than others. The use of the DH differs a bit in National League too.

While Boston’s JD Martinez has played all his games as designated hitter, other teams have muddled their positioning a little. Looking at the Cardinals for example, seven players have played ten games or more as DH and Albert Pujols has the most with only 50 DH appearances through 126 team games. Determining a “Designated Hitter” in APBA play may just be a situation of “who doesn’t to play the field today?”.    

When I dove further into the stats, I found very few players who were listed DH as their first position. Here’s a link to 2022 MLB appearances by position if you want to sort by position and see for yourself.

2022 top 15 DH appearances by games through 8/27

Martinez is a prime example. A quick check shows that 497 players appeared in an MLB game in 2022 as a designated hitter so far. So basically, more than half of non-pitchers. If APBA were to come up with a “DH” position to put on a player’s card, there would have to be some sort of limit to reach that qualification.

Summary

I’m really open to any thoughts that any of you have on this.  How do you think the APBA card makers should handle this?  If you are in a league or you plan to do a replay of the 2022 season, what would you prefer?

Alan, welcome back to APBA! Thanks for contacting me and asking such a thought-provoking question.